No Comments

Nikki, yeah i would include some artisitic work on ur portfolio...mmhh but be carefull that dont is too much, u might do a great architecture portfolio that goes to hell with not that good artistic-amateur stuff...i think photo would be more helpfull than the paintings...but u never know, depends on who r u showing it to...i.e. Steven Holl (i think he would apreciate more ur paintings than the actual arch portfolio).
and yeah...dating other architects is the best...at least my last 2 ex.girlfriends r also architecture students... its easier to match interests, hours and stuff...also i think other girls dont really know what im telling to them when i start talking about architecture...anyways good luck

oh man, i miss cambridge. ever go to christine's? "another chicken souvlaki to go billy!"
i feel the same way. my stuff looks much better graphically than in real life. same with those coffee/teapots over at max protetch in nyc. i saw it on the net, but when i saw it in person - they looked pretty much like shitt. i wonder why?

so ... i'm not too familiar with texas geography. whereabouts is arlington? have you been to the kimball museum (kahn) in fort worth? and how about the ando museum next door ... does it compliment, compete, support, mock, bow down, or ignore the kimball?
so many questions, so little time.
~ arigato and adios ~

I worked on 1 of the houses in the late 90s. As far as I know the only one that's been vinylized is one of the oldest, and at 9 or 10 years old was in need of repainting (a problem greatly exacerbated by the owners' dogs.) The owners recently chose to re-side rather than have to repaint from time to time.
I do remember that Henry and his cohorts were in favor of chain link fence around our house, so if 1 or more clients have chosen to replace fences with chain link I suppose this would seem to Henry & co. to be validation of their preference.
As far as Neighborhood Housing Services, they didn't usually have a particular client lined up for the houses prior to or during construction, so they probably aren't holding out on you - they probably really have no idea for whom the house is ultimately for at this point. All the houses that were done while I was at Yale were all sold after they were complete - and some took quite awhile to sell. Unlike Habitat for Humanity NHS didn't seem to require any "sweat equity" from their clients, so they didn't have to have them lined up as early in the process.
The eventual owners of the houses have not all been of the same ethnicity, and I hadn't gotten the sense that NHS equated "poor" with "black" - I do there was some history of this sort of simplistic equation when Yale was working with Habitat in the early 90s and that this had something to do with the switch to NHS in the first place, but that's a long story.
These days I think Henry & co. have veto power in the final decisions. It wasn't set up that way in the first couple years (the critics, dean, various other characters each had votes equal to the NHS peoples' votes.) Still, it's been that way for at least several years now, meaning that the houses that have ultimately been chosen and built are at least as much the "fault" of NHS as of Yale.

Hi
Let me introduce myself. My name is Van. I am currently a student at the University of New Hampshire. I am studying civil engineering and will be graduating with a bachelor degree this coming semester. Well, today I've searched upon this site and found your profile. Architecture is something I've always dream to be studying but I've no background on this field whatsoever. I'm planning to apply to GSD MARCH I next fall. I am just looking for someone who could give me some few advices or information, maybe show me around the area. Anyway, I hope to hear back from you. I appreciate your time in reading this.
Thanks,
Van

Van...As a former civil/structural engineer, I think you'll find the transition to architecture quite well-appreciated. First of all, since you haven't worked as an engineer yet, not too much of the engineering/physics will "hamper" your creativity. Second, you'll find that architecture is a lot more analytical than you would've expected. The analytical skills you learned in engineering will totally work to your advantage in studying GIS maps, demographics, or just "breaking down" designs. My fine art skills, however, were pretty mediocre, and so if you haven't had much time/experience to hone these enough to create a decent portfolio, I would recommend taking private lessons and crank out some work over the next year for that portfolio. Good luck!
J (GSD MArch I 2003)

City of Brotherly Shove. This is a terrible story.
And yet, I can't help but giggle....those SEPTA drivers are some nasty nasty people, but I've also sat next to plenty of transit riders who I would have enjoyed tossing into traffic.
I will say though that I had many of experiences on SEPTA that reminded me of the good in almost all people. Traveling across town on a bus with a baby, a stroller, winter clothing, and a bag full of tile samples would hardly be possible if not, as they say, for the kindness of strangers.

SEPTA sucks. There was some dude on there the other week when I was riding opening and closing a box cutter and just spinning it around. It's like ADD land. No one can just sit and ride to their destination. It reaks of urine. This crazy guy was simulating masturbation from 2nd-40th street. I walk. I walked from from 2nd-43rd because I would rather walk for an hour than ride SEPTA for 20 minutes.

Well not everyone in Philly can afford to drive to work or to get groceries. Even if they could, I'm sure it is better to have some form of mass transit. The week or so of the SEPTA strike was hell. Its not the best, but I guess its the best Philly can do when the only people that ride it are ones that really have to.

didn't mean to offend, philarch... just making a joke about the name. i have no clue about the quality of philly's mass transit.
but, since you mention it... you say "the best they can do when the only people who ride it are those who have to" to which i'd like to say, well, wouldn't more people ride it if it were better? maybe the reason only poor people ride it is BECAUSE it sucks. just a thought.
for the record, the boston mass transit "system" blows but it doesn't blow so hard that the only people who ride it are those who have no choice. even the most pathetic transit systems still beat traffic and parking in most high density areas, and many middle and even upper-middle class people will recognize that. ...unless your buses come with head wounds.

I loved the T. Sure it was late and not spotless, but I typically felt safe at any hour (mind the Orange line with it's murders and what-not). But you're right, everyone rode the T. I would ride SEPTA if it didn't suck. I like public transit, but SEPTA is crap. So I think it's both ways, only those who have to use it, but if it was better more people would use it. Plus, it's not hard to drive/park in Philly where as Boston it's a nightmare, so people use their cars in Philly, where as in Boston they just use them to get out of the city.

I guess its kind of weird to carry a "conversation" on here is strange, but why not. No offense taken, Myriam. I guess I'm kind of protective of Philly. To your comment about making it better and attracting more people, I agree. But in a way, thats more of an investment and possibly risky. Philly being very conservative in general and with lack of public support, I doubt they will make an investment like that. And its not just about smelly buses or one violent bus driver, but the entire infrastructure to support and maintain a clean and effective mass transit system with helpful and friendly staff. Would Philly's tax payers want that? especially when most of the people that make money don't use mass transit anyway? I guess its more about the preconceived ideas of what it means to use mass transit than anything else - interesting note though, Philly did make a huge investment in building the new sports stadiums. Maybe they will see the potential for clean and efficient mass transit system. Maybe not in my life time.

I think most people in Philly would gladly support more funding for SEPTA. But the problem is, it's not their call. SEPTA is a state agency, not a city agency, so SEPTA's purse strings are controlled by people in Harrisburg who think of public transit as a form of welfare. (But notice how the Regional Rail lines that serve the suburbs have generally good service, while the city busses and subways are falling apart at the seams.)

It is true that SEPTA is a state agency and serves more than Philadelphia (even parts of Delaware and New Jersey). However, the bus and subway system in Philadelphia is very much integrated with the city itself. The connections between the 30th St. train station, City Hall, Market East, the Sports stadiums, and etc. by public transit has much more value than simple transportation. To really change it around, its going to require much more of Philly's resources than SEPTA's. Septa replacing old buses, trolleys and trains will not help anything. And like I kind of mentioned, it isn't just financial or economical it is also about changing the perception of the subway or buses by the public. I love cars (I even thought about designing cars instead of going into architecture) but the city (not just Philly) could potentially be much more efficient and cleaner with less of them. I guess I just want American cities to resemble European or Asian cities in this regard. I apologize for seeming so passionate about this issue, but I think this relates to architecture.

Hasselhoff, I like the T itself--like the trains, the stations, etc. --in general. It just frustrates me to no end that the "system" doesn't function as an actual system; you can't really rely on the T and only the T to get around the city; it's like the T, plus tons of walking, plus a bus or two, plus a cab, and THEN you'll be where you want--unless you want to go, say, Target, or basically any affordable shopping that isn't located in a street full of puke (*ahem* downtown crossing *ahem*). It's pretty ridiculous that:
a) it's extremely difficult to physically pay to take the T (no machines ever work, there aren't change machines anywhere, you can't pay in cash, but you can't buy a card either, except from 12-4pm for 3 days of the month atgovernment center ONLY, etc. etc. (What other city do you know of where you can't buy passes from the guys in the booths?!)
b) they know where their trains are, but they won't tell you!
c) they run three trains right on top of each other but then leave everyone stranded in the snow for 30 minutes, then run 3 more... etc. etc.
and so on.
Whole sections of this city (the South and North End come to mind) are not served by any kind of public transit at all. I guess I'm miffed because I'm used to the systems in Paris and Chicago (Chicago has HEATERS at their outdoor stops! Why can't we have little gas pilot lights?!)... and Boston's is just... seriously third world.
I think the only reason it's decently clean is that this city is pretty puritanical and upscale. We just don't have poor people on the scale of Philly.
ok, rant over. sorry!

I think a huge reason why public transit works in Europe and Asia, is that gas is $8+ a gallon. Relatively, it's not expensive to drive here. But yeah, there were some crappy aspects to the T. I did like walking a lot in Boston, so I didn't mind that much. You could buy T passes at Star Market and Harvard Square too. Since I shopped at Star and worked at Harvard, it wasn't tough to get my passes. I also biked when it was nice, but I hate biking in Philly. Weird right? Rather bike in BOSTON than Philly?! With those crazy drivers? At least there weren't trolly tracks all over. I've almost died a few times at the hands of those trolly tracks in West Philly.

Good luck over in Madrid! When we were working on our UW-Milwaukee house at SD '09 we chatted with a few Florida students, just from what they told us they had a lot of catching up to do to get ready for 2010, hope everything's going well!

ha very interesting wonder what they would say if you mentioned the "hole" to them.
It would be interesting to see how you could extend your site onto that parcel and maybe program or otherwise take advantage of hole.....

Neat project. I look forward to seeing what solutions are brought to the table. It's funny, I was just in Portland this past weekend and my wife and I were talking about how terribly bad that Nordstroms needs a facelift or something to open it up to one of the busiest areas in town. We especially enjoyed sitting in Director Park with our food cart munchies. Good luck.